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Cortège 'Fragment', Op 143

Introduction

Flamboyant is the Cortège in A major, subtitled ‘Fragment’. Every so often Chaminade produces a work which bursts the bounds of the decorum that informs most of her music, and this is one such. The swaggering bravado of this military march almost recalls the satirical heroics of Alkan’s Capriccio alla soldatesca, and when the music turns to the minor she produces another surprise by turning the march tune into a fugue subject. An extended development centred around E major allows a cadence back to the opening material, with a thunderous left-hand drum figure marked ‘Timbales’ (was this, in truth, a sketch for an orchestral piece?) just before the closing bars.